Jenelle: Drums, vocals
Jenelle has played the drums since 8 years old and has played as a session player
and in popular rock, oldies and blues bands throughout the country since the age of 15.
In Cincinnati, she has played with Jay Aronolf, son of Ohio's famous Senator, Stanley Aronolf playing modern sophisticated rock, Nightshift and the first Dirty River band playing to eager fans at the local popular college clubs and on the radio with several bands.
In 1986, Jenelle played with Cincinnati Legend, Gradual Taylor,
in a band who Gradual later called the best band he had ever put together. The band consisted of Ernie Waits, Jim Orwig, keyboards, who later joined “The Menu’s”
and Sondra C.
Jenelle experimented with electronic percussion for the first time
then, using Linn Drum triggers in this band on her vintage 1967 Ludwig acoustic set.
After that band split up, Jenelle put together a
“favorite oldies” band playing 50's
and 60’s, Doo Wop, rockabilly and surf music after which, Jenelle resurrected Dirty River again for a second version, playing the local circuit that included Mike and Jay Tucker (“J. Scar”), known from the jams,
Sondra C and Jeff Bonta.
Now again, the band is
reborn, still featuring Jeff and Jenelle along with some new blood, Rick Stone
and Malkum Gibson!
Jenelle
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Roland electronic V-Drums
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Da old sets
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Drums and Vocals
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Old "friends"
Vintage '67 Ludwig's
10-piece Tama's
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Click on above pic for larger image
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Click on above pic for larger image
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Updated:
07/16/2014
- Jenelle owns four drum sets. One, a TAMA 10-piece Imperial-Star acoustic set in Gun Metal Grey (Gibraltar double-tiered cage) with a full array of Zildjian cymbals, an expanded version of the Roland V-Drums, featuring dual triggers for sequencers and Midi, played through a Roland KC-500 full-range 150-watt keyboard amp and run simultaneously through the P.A.
Two other sets Jenelle is especially proud of are a 6-piece 1967 vintage Ludwig set in blue sparkle and her latest, a custom Yamaha 5-piece jazz set in natural wood finish.
- Jenelle, professionally trained, has played in musicals, as a hired session player, in school bands and in popular rock, oldies and blues bands throughout the country; Cincinnati, Ohio,
NYC, Washington D.C. and all around the California Bay area, since the age of 15. She has played in regional circuits
too doing rock oldies shows at fairgrounds as recently as 2000.
Through The Years:
- The Insects, a very popular dance/show band of the 60’s, was managed by the
pair who managed the national act "Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods"
who secured freelance solo work for Jenelle in musicals in addition to her
work in the band.
- The first band managed by Jenelle was "Cherry Fog". It was a late 60’s
band that performed at amusement parks, VFW halls, large bowling alleys, dance halls and clubs.
Tunes were covers by Vanilla Fudge (You Keep Me Hanging On), Strawberry Alarm Clock
(Incense and Peppermints), Aorta (Strange), as well as the more mainstream
Yardbirds, Hendrix, Doors, Rolling Stones, Beau Brummels, and others. This band won all four of the “Battle Of The Bands” it had entered
and opened for other local big acts at the time such as "Mechanical Sandbox"
on big stages.
- During the 70’s and 80’s, while in her own bands, she also ran sound for other bands such as Wolf Raven that included Rick Shelly, Gary Bates,
Steven Bishop and Karl Gregory. Rick played more recently for "Sonny Hill and the Nightshift".
- Jenelle's band in 1980 was "Phoenix". This band featured Jay Aronolf, at 16, a young guitar
rock god and son of Ohio's famous Senator, Stanley Aronolf. Jay later went on to form "Rough Midget,"
"Mara" and now is the leader of "1969." Phoenix played The Stones (Brown Sugar), Blue Oyster Cult (Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll), Robin Trower, Aerosmith (Sweet Emotion, Runnin'
with the Devil), The Who (Behind Blue Eyes), Hendrix and Pretenders (Precious) among others.
- Jenelle played the local popular college clubs and on the radio with Phoenix and Nightshift ('80, '81) and then the first Dirty River was born in 1982, a name she registered. Dirty River
in this first incarnation featured outstanding performers who have since
gone on to make a name for themselves in bands or producing and writing (national act Kathy Wade). Nightshift played The Cars, Robert Palmer and Bob Seeger.
The first Dirty River was blues and rock performing covers and originals.
They did The Police (Message in a Bottle), ZZ Top (Arrested for Driving
While Blind), Grateful Dead (Turn on Your Love Light), Savoy Brown (Tell
Mama, Can't Get Next to You) Ten Years After (Hear Me Calling), Buddy
Miles/Hendrix (Them Changes), Blodwyn Pig ( Someday), Sonny Terry and
Brownie McGee (White Boy, Walkin Blues, others), Huey Lewis (Heart of Rock
and Roll), Bonnie Rait (Love Me Like a Man) and Aretha Franklin (Respect), to name
some, at local clubs packed to the walls.
- In the late eighties and in-between two versions of Dirty River, Jenelle put together an oldies band. They played 50's Doo Wop and rockabilly, surf music and
rhe classic hits of the 60’s. playing on a regular basis at the top stages in the area including hotels and "house gigs", this band did The Diamonds, Ventures, Chantays, Righteous Brothers, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd,
T. Rex, Grand Funk and Dire Straights among others.
- In 1986, Jenelle played with Gradual Taylor, a star in Cincinnati. They played the "Chatterbox" every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and broke all of the attendance records, literally packing the huge club to it's capacity. It was a performance dance/show band, joking and having fun with the audience bringing the house down. Gradual writes, records and performs his own hits including his infamous “Shake Your Hiney” and “Just A Little Taste Of Your Love” among many others.
Gradual called this the best band he had ever put together. The band had great chemistry and included players Ernie Waits, who had played with Taj Mahal, on bass and vocals, Jim Orwig on keyboards, who later
went on to “The Menu’s” prior to their rise to fame, Sondra C and Jenelle on drums, experimenting with electronic percussion for the first time using the Linn Drum with triggers off of her vintage Ludwig acoustic set. Gradual and the
band kept the place wild and the girls, who frequently removed their tops on
the dance floor!
- A year later, Dirty River was resurrected again. No less talented than the first version
this one was a benchmark for blues when blues was just getting reborn in Cincinnati. It was during this time
Sondra C came to a blues jam at Miss Caties, hosted by Jenelle where it was
decided Sondra would be the lead singer for Dirty River and a load of blues tapes
were given to her to learn appropriate for a female lead singer. Dirty River played the local circuit at many locations, such as Miss Kitty's and was the house band at Township Fields and Tavern, Burbank’s,
Gay 90's and others.
Being house band at Township F&T allowed us to play
and host many jammers and because the place was so huge, including the
multiple baseball fields, it allowed us to host the very first blues festival Cincinnati had seen.
Dirty River then, in early 1992, put together and hosted an outdoor music festival celebrating the best blues that the city had to offer. It included some of the original blues masters local to Cincinnati
including the Blues All-Stars, which featured "Sweet" Alice Hoskins,
Ricky Nye, Skoot, Sonny Hill and "Little Al" . It was a success! We had beautiful weather, a great line up of fantastic blues,
FAntastic turn-out with several families in attendance and lots of sponsors. The then
very new Cincinnati Blues Society, put together their first festival the following year,
based upon this model and continues to put a yearly festival today. Jenelle was a part of their first
one, bringing Sponsors on board, marketing and the featured performer, James
Cotton to town! Of and on since then, she has served on the board as
Web Mistress and Secretary for the Cincinnati Blues Society (CincyBlues.org).
Dirty River also did “RiverFest” that same year in September, a huge Cincinnati farewell to summer
with a monstrous fireworks display set to music at the end of the evening
televised. RiverFest attracts 500,000 people from the region and Dirty River’s performance was featured live on air.
Riverfest, 1992
Benefit performance August, 2005
Jammin' January, 2004 w/ Paula Wolfe (my best friend, R.I.P.)